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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2581 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the changes outlined in this Bill will not concern most licensees, as they already have no problems with consistently operating within the law. However, a few will prefer to call it draconian or even worse, and it is little wonder. I suggest that a far better term for us all to use would be "responsible". "Responsibility" is the key word here, and I think that what we are proposing today will be looked upon favourably by the majority. Licensees have a responsibility to the whole community, not just to each other or to themselves. There is only one reason why a licensee will intentionally carry on serving someone who is under age or absolutely legless, for want of a better word, and that is to line their pocket, knowing that the chances of being successfully prosecuted are pretty slim.

I believe that our liquor industry needs to be well regulated, and our licensees need to be very aware of their obligations and responsibilities to the whole community, not just to themselves. If the only way of doing this is with a big stick, they have only themselves to thank for it. I am hopeful, though, that through the passage of this Bill today the relationship between the Liquor Licensing Board and licensees will improve and that there will be a significant rise in voluntary compliance among those few licensees who seem to have regularly caused us problems. I commend the Minister for taking this action and the other members for speaking today, and I look forward to seeing it work.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (11.28), in reply: Mr Speaker, I thank members who have indicated their support for this legislation. I do not think I can overstate how important it is that the liquor industry in this town receive the strong message that members of this place do feel, to quote the words of the shadow Attorney-General, that a crackdown on the industry is wellnigh due.

It is true that in this city in recent years we have experienced a very large number of problems related directly or indirectly to the abuse of alcohol. The leader of the ACT Greens, Ms Tucker, indicated that very clearly, and I know that the community as a whole sees the extent of those problems. They do relate in large part, as Mr Osborne indicated, to conscious decisions, in many cases, by licensees to flout the laws that apply to them - laws that forbid the sale of alcohol to minors, laws that forbid the sale of alcohol to intoxicated people, laws that restrict the number of persons who might safely occupy particular licensed premises, laws that deal with standards maintained within licensed premises and the education of employees. Mr Speaker, I have to say that in many respects it is true that the industry itself has not taken a sufficiently responsible approach to dealing with those problems.

Ms Follett referred to consultation with the industry. I have spent a great deal of time in the last year and a half discussing issues of licensing and liquor trading with the Australian Hotels Association. I have had at least four meetings with the AHA, and I have had a large number of other contacts with them, both through my office and through the liquor section of my department. It is true that some in the industry have chosen not to get the signal which is being sent through measures such as this. I recall one particular meeting where I talked to the president of the Australian Hotels Association in the ACT about the problem of violence on or near licensed premises. The president of the association, who is the licensee of a prominent nightspot in Civic, said to me,

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